


A Cold Case Part Two

by rowdy_tanner



Series: The Sword of Damocles Series. [2]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 09:53:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6799111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowdy_tanner/pseuds/rowdy_tanner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Sword of Damocles Series. A Modern Day AU (Pre-The ATF AU created by the marvelous Mog). When Sarah Connolly first sees Chris Larabee it is love and murder at first sight. Can Sarah's best friends, Vin Tanner and Buck Wilmington, join with Nathan Jackson and persuade Josiah Sanchez, Ezra Standish to work alongside J. D. Dunne in order to give true love a helping hand?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Cold Case Part Two

**Disclaimer:** The boys are the property of MGM, Mirisch, and Trilogy Entertainment. I do not own them or make money from them but if I did own them I promise that I would share.

**Characters:** Focus, Sarah Connolly, Chris Larabee, Vin Tanner. Includes, Buck Wilmington, Nathan Jackson, Mary Travis, Josiah Sanchez, Ezra Standish, J. D. Dunne and Ella Gaines. **OCs** , Admiral Woodrow C. Larabee, Ginger Larabee

**Summary:** The Sword of Damocles Series. A Modern Day AU (Pre-The ATF AU created by the marvelous Mog). When Sarah Connolly first sees Chris Larabee it is love and murder at first sight. Can Sarah's best friends, Vin Tanner and Buck Wilmington, join with Nathan Jackson and persuade Josiah Sanchez, Ezra Standish to work alongside J. D. Dunne in order to give true love a helping hand?

**Warning:** The "Admiral" is NOT a warm and fuzzy character. He is both intentionally rude and offensively misogynistic. As Amber would say, he isn't entirely useless he can always serve as a bad example. His outmoded attitudes are no reflection on the US Navy nor are the comments that pass between Buck and Vin.

**Credits:** Suggested song lyrics and T-shirt wrangling - Amber Drabble. Vital feedback and cheerleading - Mary Travis-Larabee

 

 

 

> **PART TWO**

> **Chapter 6**

> He woke up to the sweet scent of her skin. Seconds later he realized that he was only dreaming.

> Sarah. . .

> Ella reached for him as thoughts of Sarah Tanner caused his body to stir, his wife was just as possessive of him in her sleep as she was when awake. He squirmed out of her grasp and slipped out of bed. He admonished himself in the bathroom mirror as he shaved, how could making love with his lawfully wedded wife make him feel as if he was committing adultery? How could he be unfaithful to Sarah when she barely knew he existed? It was clear that Sarah was deeply in love with Vin Tanner and if he knew anything then he knew that Sarah would be a faithful wife.

> A delicious new smell caught his attention.

> Breakfast.

> As giddy as a schoolgirl Sarah dished up Chris Larabee's early morning meal. Pausing she surveyed the overladen table.

> Oh boy! I think I made him too much, thought Sarah. Must remember that he isn't that bottomless pit, Vin Tanner. Chris doesn't need fattening up he's just perfect as he is. Tall and lean but strong and muscular too. Pale-skinned, blond and green-eyed . . . Lord, Vin was right she was positively drooling at the thought of that smooth skin with its down of fine golden hair . . .

> Breathe, Sarah, breathe.

> Standing in the doorway Larabee smiled but didn't speak. He wasn't being unfriendly it was just that he was scared that the first words out of his mouth might be a desperate plea for her to leave Vin and Ella behind to elope with him. He needed to keep a distance between them at all times.

> She turned back to the stove and seating himself at the table he swallowed scalding coffee and shoveled down far too much food to try to take his mind off her denim clad derrière. He'd never seen so sweet a sight. What was he going to do? He couldn't even make it through breakfast without his mind dropping below his belt. Those skimpy t-shirts and follow-me-home shoes didn't help. Why did she dress like that? It seemed at odds with the air of quiet domesticity she had given off in the RV. Perhaps Tanner liked his women to dress like that? No, that didn't seem likely either. For the first time Larabee's suspicions were aroused.

> Why were they here? What did they want? Were they on the run?

> Hell, he didn't care it was enough that she was here.

> Sarah cleared the table of the breakfast dishes and filled the machine. She was impervious to the ungodly din it made as she stared out of the window watching as Chris climbed into his big black truck and headed off. How she wished she could sit beside him and speed off towards a distant sunset.

> She loved her career. It had given her a real sense of purpose and deep satisfaction. Yet she would gladly give it up to marry and raise a family with this man. She shook her head. Was she some nineteenth century maiden ready to swoon away in the hero's arms? The last time she'd checked this was the twenty-first century. Women could now have it all. For the first time Sarah contemplated what it was she really wanted from life.

> Her musings on all things Christopher Adam Larabee were interrupted. With a rusty death rattle the dish washing machine finally ground to a halt and she could hear again. Got to ask Chris to take a look at that thing. The mere thought of Chris rolling up his sleeves and maybe getting a smudge of oil on the end of his nose sent her thoughts into a tailspin once more only to be rudely disturbed by footsteps on the stair. Why was Ella awake so early? Sarah looked at her wristwatch in surprise. Was it really late morning already?

> Never being one to be given to daydreaming even as a child she immediately felt guilty. Bustling over to the coffee-machine she refilled it with the eye-watering strong blend Ella enjoyed as instructed the previous day. The carafe had previously contained a milder brew she had instinctively known that Chris would prefer. Given the grim set of circumstances that had brought Sarah and Vin to the Larabee Ranch Sarah was more than glad to be the one preparing Chris' food.

> *******

> Vin had inveigled a lift to town in Chris Larabee's truck. Preferring to use the pay phone outside the feed store to report the discovery of the Mustang and the foreman's body. Buck and Josiah quickly agreed that it would tip their hand if they immediately requested a CSI team to recover evidence from the Mustang. The foreman had no immediate family that needed to be informed.

> Josiah wasn't unduly surprised that the foreman, Al Lopez, was another murder victim and added Lopez's name to the list of people Ella was suspected of having sacrificed in her pursuit of Chris Larabee. Surmising that Lopez had been disposed of in order to facilitate Larabee's recruitment as ranch foreman. There were plenty of places Ella could kill the former foreman and hide his body somewhere on the ranch until the Mustang had provided a convenient body dump but she must have had help in moving him.

> Josiah's money was on someone from Ella's past. Someone she trusted even more than the the crooked lawyer, Jack Averal.

> Vin arranged to drop off a few paint chips he'd collected from the pond so that the lab could confirm that the Mustang was the one used in the "hit-and-run". He also relayed the license plate number to Buck so he could run a check with the DMV.

> ***********

> _The search at the DMV immediately attracted his interest. He leaned back in the chair feeling both satisfied and distraught. His conflicting emotions brought tears to his eyes as he wondered how long it would take this Wilmington guy to track Ella's murderous trail of destruction to the hacker's own mother's still open murder case. . ._

> _Wiping the cold sweat from his pale brow he squared his young shoulders and slowly mounted the basement steps. It was time to make his report and this time he had information that would set cataclysmic events in motion._

> *******

> Buck mirrored the hacker's reaction as he too leaned back in his office chair staring at the DMV information. The Mustang was connected to at least one unsolved murder. A young nurse had been mowed down in Virginia Beach by her own car, a nineteen-sixties red Mustang. Buck's hackles rose as he read the original police report. Virginia Beach was clearly somewhere a Navy SEAL like Chris could easily have met Ella. Perusing the surprisingly detailed report Buck made his own notes.

> The fact that the single-parent victim, nurse Megan Dunne, had been working extra shifts at a nearby hospital to put her son through college caused a twinge of sorrow to cross Buck's face. Buck's cold case squad had quickly pulled up more information on Megan Dunne and her son. The Press had used an old holiday snap of Megan and her floppy-haired toddler son laughing on a beach somewhere tropical. Possibly Hawaii. From the expressions on their faces Buck guessed that the person taking the picture was most likely to have been someone that both mother and son loved dearly. Perhaps even the young boy's father was the man behind the camera, speculated Buck. Buck knew that the photograph had been specifically chosen to garner public sympathy for the victims and to encourage witnesses to come forward.

> In fact several witness had given statements in the aftermath of the tragedy. The police had been particularly keen to interview Megan Dunne's roommate, a trainee nurse. Buck allowed his jaw to drop. The nurse, named in the files as Ella Gaines, had disappeared the same night as the collision. Eye witnesses had indicated that there had been a male passenger in the Mustang in addition to the _female_ driver.

> Neighbors reported hearing raised voices, the slamming of doors and someone crying out in pain on several occasions. A local police patrol called by worried neighbors had attended the address of the small apartment more than once to find an inebriated Ella Gaines in sole charge of the youth while the youngster's mother was out at work. Ella had blamed her ex-boyfriend, Cletus Fowler, for the disturbances but in spite of the man being jailed for several weeks the same type of noises continued to annoy the neighborhood.

> Then a week before the murder an exasperated Megan had given Ella notice to quit the tiny apartment they shared and hand over the spare set of keys with their lucky four-leaf clover tag that Megan had loaned Ella for the Mustang. The final police report named both Ella Gaines and her supposed boyfriend, Cletus Fowler, as persons of interest although no arrests were ever made.

> Another detective popped his head around Buck's door. "One Cletus Fowler had DUI arrests in Coronado, California later that same year. Speeding tickets were issued in his name in both Norfolk and San Diego the year after. The vehicle involved was always a red Mustang. The best news of all is that we have a San Diego speeding ticket in the name of one Ella Gaines."

> "They killed Megan Dunne with her own car, leaving her only son an orphan and then continued to drive it on a daily basis? The cold-hearted bastards!"

> "Lucky for us though, as that speeding ticket connects Ella Gaines to the car that killed Hildegarde Petrie's cousin."

> ***********

> Woodrow C. Larabee raised his head as the door to his basement opened. Standing in the doorway J. D. Dunne nodded across the room to Chris Larabee's father. "They're close," he announced.

> "How close?" barked US Navy Admiral Larabee.

> "The red Mustang that killed my mother is still on the Larabee Ranch."

> "The stupid bitch never had the sense to get rid of it?"

> "I'm sure she kept it for sentimental reasons. Little Ella's first murder weapon," sneered JD. "I'm surprised she didn't have it bronzed."

> Woodrow C. Larabee turned and marched briskly into his study. The young hacker followed the broad backed figure. Larabee waved JD into a chair opposite the Navy man's huge oak desk.

> "Speak," he commanded.

> JD paused. "Can I ask? why did you recruit me? Wouldn't it have been simpler to raise your suspicions about Ella Gaines-Petrie with your son Chris when he and she first met up in Tijuana?"

> JD refused to look away from the Admiral's cold stare although it took all his courage not to throw himself whimpering on the floor and crawl for shelter under the desk.

> "Look, sir, I'm grateful for all the money you've paid me and for buying me the expensive set-up I installed down in the basement. I had to drop out of school when Ma was killed as she had no life insurance. Pa died overseas before they could get married, so the money will mean I can finish my education. It's just that I don't see why---"

> The Admiral held up his hand for silence. "No one can tell my son Christopher Adam to do anything. From the day he was born the more I told him not to do a thing then the more bound and determined he was to do it. When he was just a little kid I said under no circumstances was he to ride that four-legged brute his Great-grandpa Larabee called a horse so he entered the junior rodeo on the damned thing. At age fourteen I warned him not to take that old dirt bike out to the woods but he rode it through the mud until he and it finally got busted up. I told him not to play football and what did he do? Became the team's star player. I ordered him to stay out of the Navy so what did he do?"

> "He joined the Navy?"

> "Not only that, he joined the Green Faces and put himself in harm's way on every damn mission."

> JD had seen shelf after shelf of sports trophies on the walls of the boy Larabee's bedroom. All bright and gleaming from regular polishing and he guessed that Admiral Larabee himself was the proud demon with the metal polish in spite of all his protestations to the contrary.

> "The only person that boy ever listened to was his mother."

> "Yeah," agreed JD. "That's what sons usually do."

> "The only way to save my son from that jumped up base bunny is to help those bonehead policemen arrest her for murder."

> "It's a policewoman taking the lead in this case."

> "A what? A woman detective heading up a homicide case?"

> "Yes."

> "In my day women damn well knew their place," growled the Admiral.

> "Barefoot and pregnant?" JD muttered under his breath. "I understand that she's a very dedicated officer."

> "Should be dedicating herself to looking after her husband and children."

> "She hasn't got either," pointed out JD.

> "One of those, eh? Don't ask don't tell. Knew a few of those in the Navy, too much red lipstick but they made damn good mugs of coffee."

> JD stared in horror at the biased old dinosaur sitting behind the desk. "Things have changed since your day, sir."

> "Not for the better," grumbled the Admiral. "Long haired hippies have taken over. I'll make a few calls to Agent Gibbs at NCIS see if we can't get a real man on the job."

> JD groaned inwardly, he didn't want Sarah Connolly's life put in danger by the Admiral's meddling. JD was pinning his hopes on Sarah Connolly's skills as an experienced detective plus a generous dash of female intuition to succeed where others had failed miserably. "She has a male SWAT officer undercover with her. Here's his Army file, sir."

> "Ground-pounder, eh?"

> "Just read it, sir." JD fidgeted and waited while Tanner's complete file without a single redacted paragraph was read and inwardly digested.

> The Admiral tried not to look impressed. "He's _Snake Charmer_? The case does seem to be in good hands for the present but don't say that I didn't warn you when it all becomes one great big Charlie Foxtrot."

> ***********

> "That's four murders now, Josiah," pointed out Buck.

> "That we know of. There could be more. Other than the hubris of hanging on to the car Ella has proved pretty good at covering her tracks."

> Buck swiveled in his desk chair stared out of his office window. "I want Sarah out of there now. We'll put an arrest team together. Before you say it, I'd do exactly the same if Sarah was a man. I want Vin out of there too."

> "You do that and Ella will walk. Maybe you'll get her on the forgery charge but a good lawyer and Ella can afford the best, will claim everything else is circumstantial. We need hard evidence. Can we find this Cletus Fowler?" asked Josiah.

> "You think that he's Ella's Achilles Heel?"

> "I think Ella is his. He went to jail for her once before. But this is multiple homicide not a few weeks in a local jail. I'm not sure what kind of relationship they have but maybe he didn't like her marrying Joseph Petrie and cutting him out of the picture. Other than Chris Larabee, Ella gravitates towards weak, easily manipulated men."

> "Okay, I'll leave Sarah and Vin in place until we find this Cletus Fowler."

> "Vin will watch her back, Buck."

> **Chapter 7**

> Muscles aching down to the bone both men were hot and dusty. Larabee was glad of the cool interior of the RV. Vin waved Chris into a seat at the table and tossed him a bottle of ice-cold beer.

> "Sorry, we ain't got Budweiser," grinned Vin, taking a seat opposite his new boss.

> They drank their beer in silence. Chris marveled at that. Never before had he been comfortable just sitting with another man. Socializing meant drinking and chasing women. Cheering on some sports team or arguing the merits of classic automobiles. He felt as if he had known Vin forever.

> This was why Chris said what it was he said next.

> "Vin, I have to tell you this. I have a confession to make."

> "No, you don't."

> "I do. I respect you, Vin, I can't keep drinking your beer and---"

> "Chris, I know what you're going to say and believe me it's best left unsaid."

> "You can't know, Vin, or you'd shoot me dead."

> "Only if you insist on acting on what I know to be true."

> The now tense silence between them stretched out.

> "My middle name."

> "Huh?" Chris thought he had a handle on the Texan's odd thought processes but once in while the other man threw him a curve ball.

> "It's Cameron."

> "You don't say." Chris wondered if Vin thought they had to be formally introduced before Vin punched his lights out for harboring feelings for Sarah.

> "Family name on my Mama's side. Scots."

> More silence.

> "It's an anagram of romance."

> "What?"

> "So I guess I have to believe in it. Ain't never felt it myself. True Love. Don't blame you for feeling what you feel for Sarah and believe me, Cowboy, I can see that it's real but trust me when I tell you that I would die for Sarah. I'd never stand in the way of her happiness. But what you're thinking on saying will put Sarah in danger from Ella. Truth be told if you care for Sarah you'll keep them thoughts corralled."

> Suddenly, Chris understood it all. Vin and Sarah weren't together. Not in that way. He'd had every right to be suspicious. They were at the Larabee ranch for a totally different reason.

> "You're here for Ella?"

> Vin nodded. Surprised that Larabee had made the mental leap so quickly. "You got suspicions, Cowboy?"

> "Nothing concrete but . . ."

> "What?"

> "First met up with Ella while I was hospitalized with a stupid football injury. She was a candy striper. Some kind of community service. She had a tendency to turn up from time to time no matter where I found myself. While I was still with the Teams I was dating a cute nurse and ran into Ella while she was training at the same hospital. When I came home from overseas Megan had died in an accident and Ella had vanished. I shipped out again only days later so I never expected to see Ella again."

> "But you did."

> "I loved the Navy, still do in fact, I finally left the Teams after a mission went bad. Real bad." Chris fell silent as Vin patiently waited. "Went pretty wild for a while. Ghosts and nightmares only whiskey could hold at bay. Partied hard too."

> "Celebrating just being alive but thinking too that maybe other men rather than you should be the ones going home to their families." It was a statement borne of bitter experience not a question.

> "Exactly."

> "Been there done that," shrugged Vin, staring off into the far distance.

> "I was sleeping off a week long bender in a stinking jail somewhere the world has hemorrhoids when in walked Ella. She offered me the foreman's job and so much more. I guess my head still wasn't on straight. Maybe it never was. When I saw this place I knew that this is what I really yearned for. The land. The horses. I needed to be healed."

> "And Ella."

> "She was never what I really wanted I knew that the moment I saw Sarah but at the time Ella was what I needed. Ella understood my desire for a ranch just like this one. She was someone that loved me in spite of my past mistakes."

> "It ain't love that Ella feels for you, Cowboy. You're her obsession. Her murderous obsession."

> Chris stared Vin in the eye and prepared himself to hear what he had begun to suspect. "Murderous?"

> "Joseph Petrie, the foreman Al Lopez and Joseph Petrie's niece are just the ones I knew about before I came here. There may be others."

> "Not because of me?"

> "Joseph Petrie owned exactly the kind of ranch you must have once described to Ella. And unfortunately for him Al Lopez had the job Ella intended to offer to you."

> "That poor girl that was hit by a car had nothing. It must have been an accident."

> "That was pure jealousy. You liked the girl didn't you? Spent a little time with her?"

> "I was nice to her is all. I once gave her a kitten to wean after one of the barn cats rejected it."

> "That gift was enough to stir up Ella's feelings of jealousy."

> "Megan Dunne was killed in a traffic accident too but I guess I blocked out the similarities. Do you think Ella might have. . .?"

> "Have to check that out."

> "Vin, take her away. I'm begging you to get Sarah away from here."

> "I wish I could with all my heart. I love her too but I can't do that. Sarah is a damn fine cop, Chris. This is more than a job for her this is who she is. She'd never forgive me."

> "So I have to keep away from Sarah in order for her to stay safe," groaned Chris.

> "It's a matter of life and death, Cowboy."

> *******

> Sarah knew when she was being deliberately ignored. Suddenly Chris couldn't stand to be in the same room with her. He left the ranch house before breakfast banging the heavy door behind him as if he was angry with the entire world and reemerged only when Sarah had returned to the Tanner RV for the day.

> Both Chris and Sarah were sure that Ella had paid no attention to the shift in their relationship but Ella had missed nothing. . .

> **Chapter 8**

> Chris knocked on the door of the RV before dawn. Vin had long since abandoned the practice of trying to give the impression that he and Sarah shared a bed around Chris and he answered the door immediately.

> "Nice skivvies, pard. We need physical evidence that Ella is up to go good?"

> "Up to no good is somewhat of an understatement," answered Vin, discreetly adjusting his underwear.

> "This place was originally two ranches. There is another much smaller uninhabited ranch house and an old barn over yonder."

> "That wasn't on the deed I saw."

> "No, it won't be. Officially it's owned by The Culpepper Mining Company. Part of some offshore trust account deal Ella had Jack Averal set up," shrugged Chris.

> "Ezra mentioned The Culpepper Mining Company but we didn't know it was so closely connected to Ella."

> "What say we go take a look?"

> "Where will Ella think you are?"

> "Checking fences. Left her a note to say I'd be gone all day."

> Vin eyed the M11 pistol Chris was carrying. "Souvenir?"

> "Just an old keepsake from my days with the Teams."

> "Think you'll need it?"

> "Might be vermin up there and I hate vermin."

> "Me too," said Vin taking his Kimber .45 sidearm out of the overhead locker.

> The two men looked at their guns and grinned at each other. "Let's ride," they said.

> "You forgetting something?" asked Chris.

> "I'd better leave a note for the little woman too, right?"

> "I was thinking something more in the pants department, pard."

> "Aw shucks."

> *******

> Ella listened for the sound of the kitchen door closing before reading the note Chris had left on the pillow. Ella saw the perfect chance to get rid of Sarah Tanner for good.

> Smiling, Ella reached for the phone. "Cletus?"

> *******

> It didn't take all that long for the two men to reach the old homestead on horseback.

> "I haven't been up here often but that's a new padlock, pard." Chris dismounted and examined the shining steel and brass padlock on the ranch house door.

> Vin peered through the dirty window. "You got someone living here. Looks like they're only using one room. Sleeping bag and cot against the back wall. Milk and instant coffee on the table."

> "Fresh tire tracks but no vehicle."

> "Could be in the barn."

> "Yeah. Let's check it out first. I don't like nasty surprises."

> Vin stepped inside the wooden barn. "That smell, Cowboy."

> "You never forget that smell."

> "Blood and brains," agreed Vin, only briefly examining a dark splatter staining the wall of the junk-cluttered old barn, unwilling to disturb any evidence.

> "Al Lopez?"

> "At least three different sets of boot prints. Figure he was shot here. This is the same kind of plastic sheeting his body was wrapped in. Guess his corpse was left in here a while."

> "Ella would need help to get it into the Mustang."

> "Still don't prove she did it. Can't even prove she was ever here. You could argue Al Lopez stumbled across some drifters squatting in that old ranch house an' got himself shot for his pains."

> Chris stared at the stain again, his expression grim. "She was here. I can feel it in the air. Even if she didn't pull the trigger herself she was here when he was killed."

> "Don't blame yourself, Chris. She's obsessed."

> "With me."

> "Not. Your. Fault."

> "I don't know what exactly I was hoping to find up here. A smoking gun covered in Ella's prints I guess," growled Chris.

> "We still got the old ranch house to search."

> "We'll need something to pry the hasp off the door. The padlock itself is hardened steel even if we had bolt-cutters."

> "That will make one hell of a mess. Prefer not to tip our hand. "

> Once outside Vin led the big roan he was riding under the window. Larabee watched his companion balance on the back of the roan before standing up and reaching for the window ledge.

> "You a circus act too?" huffed Larabee.

> "Only part-time," grinned the other man as he disappeared through the now open window.

> "Hell, anything that scrawny monkey can do I guess I can do too," muttered Chris.

> "C'mon, Larabee, boots on deck."

> "You just wait until I get up there, Tanner."

> "C'mon, old man. What Sarah sees in ya I can't - - -"

> "Sarah? Has she said something about me?"

> Tanner was standing grinning at the top of the stairs when Larabee tumbled headfirst through the window of a bedroom painted a bilious shade of yellowy green.

> "What did she say?" gasped Larabee.

> "Who?"

> "Sarah!"

> "About what?" puzzled Vin, folding his arms and leaning against the wall.

> "ME!"

> "You?"

> "Yes," snapped Larabee, struggling to his feet.

> "Let me see. . .you like chicken and dumplings---"

> "What?"

> "She said you like chicken---"

> "NO!"

> "You don't like chicken and dumplings?"

> "No! Hell yes I do but that's isn't what I want to hear."

> "Ya said ya did," drawled Vin, rolling his eyes.

> "I want you to tell me what she said about me," complained an exasperated Larabee.

> "That were 'bout you."

> "NO! NO!" Larabee breathed deeply and made a valiant effort to resist the urge to manually strangle Tanner. "No, what did she say about her feelings for me?"

> "Hellfire, Cowboy, I ain't standing in the bedroom of some empty house talking to another man about 'feelings'. That just ain't happening," snickered Vin, blue eyes twinkling.

> Larabee surged forward and pinned the younger man to the far wall by the throat. "You think this is funny? I'm deadly serious about Sarah Tanner."

> "She's in love with you. What more do you need to know?"

> Looking sheepish Larabee released his hold on the other man. "I didn't hurt you did I? All this has me on edge. I just want to know all there is to know about her, I guess."

> "I'd have thrown ya down the stairs if you'd come close to hurting me, old man," grinned Vin.

> "Old man? Who you calling an old man?"

> "Sarah Connolly."

> "What?"

> "Reckon you should at least know her real name."

> "Connolly? Sarah Connolly," Larabee sounded out her name. "Yeah, I like that, Sarah Connolly."

> "You going to ruin it by changing it to 'Sarah Larabee'?" chuckled Vin.

> "If there's a chance she'll have me."

> "She'll have you alright, Cowboy," grinned Vin. "Hell, she even likes you wearing them black britches two sizes too small for Mickey Mouse."

> "I'm sure it will happen to you one day, Vin. Don't give up hope. There must be at least one really, really desperate girl out there. Somewhere. It's a mighty big world," teased Larabee.

> "Me? I'm fighting 'em off with a big stick, Cowboy."

> "Saving yourself for the right one?"

> "Not 'saving' myself exactly. Bit late for that," winked Vin.

> "I wish I'd saved myself," growled Chris, "I won't allow Ella to hurt Sarah. I'll die first."

> "Hush," hissed Vin. "Vehicle coming."

> Dashing to the window Vin shooed their horses away and pulled the window closed.

> "Who is it?" whispered Larabee.

> "How the hell can I tell from here? Ain't got X-ray vision."

> "You mean you aren't **Super Vin**?"

> "Ha ha, Larabee, you saw me wear my underpants _under_ my jeans."

> Both men suddenly fell silent as the padlock rattled on the door below.

> "What's that music?" asked Larabee.

> "Ringtone. Poison by Alice Cooper."

> "You know her name?"

> "It's a man."

> "Figures you'd be the one to know that. No taste."

> "Hey, I'm not the one married to a deranged serial-killer."

> "Shut up!" hissed Larabee as they both strained their ears to hear one side of the ongoing telephone conversation.

>   
> _"You're bringing who where? Why? Okay. I'll meet you there. Okay, I'll get rid of her for good if you're sure that's what you want. Okay. Don't I always?"_ asked the unseen speaker.

> The voice faded as the man walked across the room.

> "I can't hear!" whispered a frustrated Larabee.

> "You are goin' deaf, old man," Vin whispered close by his friend's ear.

> Pulling his cellphone from his pocket Vin squatted down and slid the phone across the floor. It juddered to a stop just short of the top step. Holding their combined breath the two men waited until the padlock rattled again signaling the man's exit.

> Moving to the head of the staircase, Vin retrieved his property and replayed the recording his phone had made of the latter part of the stranger's call.

> _"I'll shoot her out in the barn, Ella. The same way you killed the old foreman. Less mess to clean up."_

> "It must be Sarah that Ella wants out of the way," whispered Larabee.

> "You can talk normal now, Cowboy. And just so you know, you've got to have the loudest whisper on God's green earth!"

> "We need to get to the barn. We can hide and save Sarah from Ella's henchman."

> "C'mon."

> Hidden behind bales of ancient hay the two men waited. Eventually hearing a vehicle pull up outside the barn. Both men drew their weapons and lay in wait.

> Cletus Fowler panted as he heaved Sarah Connolly's unconscious body over his shoulder and carried her inside. Fowler's cellphone rang and again the two friends heard only one side of the conversation.

> _"Changed your mind again? Make it look like an accident? So that Larabee won't be suspicious? Okay."_

> Muttering to himself about the fickleness of womankind Fowler dropped Sarah on the floor of the barn and pulling closed the door behind him, left.

> Larabee dashed across the barn almost trampling Vin in his haste to check on Sarah.

> "Needle mark. Ella must have come up behind her and stuck a syringe in her neck. My fault."

> "Don't start that again. She's still alive. If she hears you blaming yourself you're dead meat, Cowboy. Sarah can't stand whiny men."

> "Whiny? Me?"

> "Can you smell that?"

> "Yes but I was too polite to make personal remarks about your dietary habits."

> "Gasoline not gas. Fowler's setting light to the barn!" Vin jumped to his feet and rushed outside.

> Picking Sarah up in his arms Larabee heard a scuffle at the barn door followed by the cracking of bone and a yelp of pain. Seconds later Vin sent Fowler sprawling across the dirt floor.

> "Found some of that vermin you said might be around these parts," growled Vin. "This varmint was carrying a concealed weapon."

> "Did you Mirandize him?"

> "Yeah but I reserved the right to shoot him in the ass if he tries to run."

> Larabee's human burden gave an unladylike groan and began to stir. Confused blue eyes stared up into green.

> "Easy, Ella drugged you," soothed Chris.

> "She must have snuck up behind me when I had the dish washing machine on," Sarah said, her professional pride injured by Ella getting the drop on her so easily.

> "I should have fixed that damn thing."

> "I was preparing your dinner. . ." she said.

> "And that's all you'll be doing from now on."

> "I will?" she asked blinking rapidly.

> "A husband expects his wife to have his dinner on the table every night without fail."

> "Wife?"

> "Larabee? That might be your idea of romancing the future Mrs. Larabee but put her down then we can settle the matter in hand first," interrupted Vin with a wry smile.

> Larabee helped Sarah stand on her own two feet and glared down at Fowler. "Can I beat a confession out of him?"

> "No you can't and we need to talk about this 'dinner on the table' business later. I do have a successful career you know," warned Sarah.

> "Okay," shrugged Larabee. "Guess I'll be the one making dinner every night."

> "You will?" blinked Sarah.

> "Anything to escape your nagging, woman."

> "I don't nag do I, Vin?"

> Holding up his hands Vin took a rapid step backwards. "Leave me out of this. More cops are injured dealing with domestic calls---"

> "Hey, this is cruel and unusual punishment!" interrupted a complaining Cletus Fowler.

> "Shut the hell up," ordered Vin.

> "And you cops can't refuse me medical attention! I have rights!"

> Larabee pulled his M11 and aimed right between Fowler's eyes. "Shut up."

> Vin smirked down at Fowler. "Go ahead, punk, make his day."

> "Seriously?" groaned Larabee. "You're using old movie quotes now?"

> "It's a classic, Cowboy. Have you never heard of Clint Eastwood?"

> "Who?" asked Chris.

> Vin squatted down beside a supine Fowler. "I got good news an' bad news for you, Fowler. The good news is that me and Sarah are cops and forbidden to beat you senseless just for the hell of it but the bad news is Larabee ain't and he's just plumb lowdown mean. He glares junkyard dogs into giving up their favorite bone."

> Vin hauled Fowler to his feet and all four of them exited the fuel-soaked barn.

> Sarah glanced over at Fowler's SUV.

> "Did you search that?" she questioned, eying the black tinted windows.

> "Yep," answered Vin.

> "Then we best get him in the back of that before we go arrest Ella."

> Suddenly Fowler shook off Vin's hand and ran inside the barn, locking the door behind him.

> "Well, he didn't get far," puzzled Sarah. "You did take his cellphone and keys?"

> "Even Larabee wouldn't make a dumb rookie mistake like that," grinned Vin, waving the aforementioned items along with the gun he'd taken from the prisoner.

> "I am still here you know," muttered Larabee.

> "Sounds like he's searching for something in there," commented Sarah, listening to the bangs and crashes coming from the building as objects rolled off shelves.

> "Matches!" yelled Larabee as the acrid smell of smoke reached them.

> "Get him out he's my only witness!" screamed Sarah.

> By the time they broke down the barn door Fowler was dead.

> "Toast," muttered Larabee, backing away from the flames.

> "So is our case against Ella," snapped Sarah. "I can't believe that he died rather than testify against her. Ella is going to walk."

> "Maybe not," said Larabee picking up Fowler's hat.

> *******

> Ella impatiently paced the floor waiting for Fowler's call. Sure that with Sarah Tanner disposed of things would return to normal on the ranch. Perhaps a trip to Mexico and unlimited bottles of tequila on a sun-soaked beach would wipe Sarah Tanner from Ella's husband's mind. Startled from her musings by the unexpected sound of a familiar SUV she ran to the window as her cellphone trilled. The black tinted window rolled down just enough for her to make out the unmistakable outline of Fowler's hat and the smoke from his cheroot.

>   
> _"Cletus?"_ she answered the handset only to hear a distorted mumbling.

>   
> _"Ella. . .? Can you hear me at all? I dropped my cellphone in the barn I think I damaged it."_ Chris tried to make his voice sound as much like Fowler's as he possibly could hoping Ella would put the rest down to interference.

>   
> _"I can hear you, just. Is Sarah Tanner taken care of?"_ Ella was only too concerned with her own plans to be cautious.

> _"Your orders were to kill her and make it look like an accident?"_

> _"Yes, Yes."_

> _"Can you see the smoke on the horizon? I've made it look like the Tanner woman died in a barn fire. There won't be enough left of her to arouse suspicion. Are the orders you gave me carried out to your satisfaction?"_

> Ella hesitated. The hair on the back of her neck stood up.

> Fire?

> Fire had never been her modus operandi she preferred poison yet night after night she had dreamed vividly of Sarah screaming Chris Larabee's name in vain as the flames consumed her. She'd never told this to a living soul so why had Cletus Fowler chosen this method?

> The polished wooden floor beneath Ella's feet seemed to shift as the room began to spin. Time seemed to contract and she could almost breathe in the smoke-filled air as from the top of the hill she watched the simple log cabin burn. The screams of a woman and child drifted upwards on the hot night air. Men she had paid to burn Sarah and Adam Larabee alive just black stick figures dancing gleefully in the firelight until Cletus Fowler's six-shooter put a sudden end to them. Clearly hearing the jangle of her horse's tack as she turned to ride away. Feeling her long red cloak whipping over her shoulders picked up by the wind that stung her cheeks, bustle and tight corset making it difficult to ride with her usual self-assurance. Still with the Cheshire cat grin of victory on her face as she left the scene of her heinous crime.

> The gunslinger Chris Larabee would be hers!

> Her carefully laid plans only to be thwarted years later by six men each ready to die if that was what it would take to save Chris Larabee from her stifling clutches.

> One of these men seemingly now so familiar. Long haired, blue-eyed, slim with a slight twist to his spine. . .

> TANNER!

> Ella gripped the back of a chair as she was violently catapulted back into the present.

> No! No! No! This time she would defeat Vin Tanner and anyone else who dared to stand in her way. Seven men one destiny. Fools! Didn't they know that it was she and Chris that were fated to be together? Together forever! Hadn't her dreams and yes, even her time-traveling hallucination proved it? Why couldn't the damn dunderheads step aside and let her take the man that was so rightfully hers? It was their fault so many had died. Those men had created the murderess she had become. Forced her to turn serial-killer. Ella was blameless. A total innocent forced by cruel circumstance to kill again and again. All for her one true love. . .

> *******

> "Chris?" prompted Sarah.

> Chris knew that Ella had somehow realized that he wasn't Cletus Fowler. And who knew what the crazy bitch would do next?

> Vin let out an exasperated sigh of defeat.

> "Time to make an arrest," announced Sarah.

> "Is the phone call enough of an admission?" asked Chris doubtfully.

> "Probably not," conceded Vin.

> "We can only hope that Ezra and Josiah came up with something," snapped Sarah.

> "If there is anything to be found Ezra will find it," said Vin confidently.

> Sarah and Vin exited the SUV and headed for the door of the ranch house.

> "Ma'am, Police. Answer the door please," demanded Vin, hammering on the door loud enough to raise the dead.

> *******

> Ella dragged her long red fingernails down her face leaving deep scratches but feeling no pain.

> "Larabee! I killed for you!" she screamed to thin air.

> Tearing at her hair she paced distractedly across the floor. "I poisoned Joseph Petrie and murdered his addle-brained niece to give you the ranch you wanted so badly. The kind of place you could only dream about but never own. That woeful excuse for a husband Joseph Petrie liked his food so I fed him arsenic until he was sick to death! Then I altered his will. You needed a job? I got rid of Al Lopez putting him down like a mangy old dog."

> Laughing she continued. "I even killed that pathetic little nurse with the nerdy bookworm of a kid always hanging around. Mowed her down with her own car. She wasn't good enough for you, darling. None of them were. I got rid of them all."

> "As for Sarah Tanner! Ha! She's next! She'll never be Sarah Larabee. You don't think that I know what you're thinking, Chris? The way you looked at her from that very first minute? You see I killed and killed for you. For our love. So we could be together forever. It isn't over until I say it is! I'll keep on killing for as long as it takes to make you see sense."

> She heard Vin pounding on the ranch house door and screeched with laughter.

> *******

> Winding down the tinted window to watch Sarah and Vin knock on the ranch house door Chris threw Fowler's hat down on the passenger seat as a sheet of orange flame filled his view.

> A loud ear-splitting bang and he was all alone. . .

> **TO BE CONTINUED**


End file.
